Northwest journal.

This Downtown Makes A Splash

If there's one thing that every suburb seems to feel it needs, it's a downtown.

Those suburbs where a retail and commercial center grew up naturally spend a lot of time fretting about how to keep their downtowns viable.

Those that don't have one want one. They seem to spend even more time searching for a way to create a "center" to give their towns focus.

Look at Des Plaines, with its ill-fated Behrel Garage and Mall, both misdirected multimillion-dollar efforts to revive a struggling downtown. Palatine has consultants searching for the true heart of the village to give its commercial district a hub. Schaumburg is still trying to manufacture a downtown with its failing Old Schaumburg Center. Buffalo Grove has had similar problems trying to whip its Town Center mall into an official downtown.

No one is quite sure why one municipality grows its own downtown and others never do. Some speculate that train tracks make the difference: Arlington Heights, Mt. Prospect and Barrington, for example, all seem to have lively, easily identifiable downtown areas, all criss-crossed by the Chicago and North Western Railway.

Yet Wheeling has train tracks but no nucleus. It was hard to get folks to hang around the center of Wheeling, such as it was: just the municipal buildings, the post office and St. Joseph the Worker Church on Dundee Road. Unless somebody was mailing a letter, getting permits or attending mass, there wasn't much to pull them into that somewhat amorphous version of a downtown.

But the Wheeling Park District decided to pick up the ball, with a slightly different approach to the usual retail-commercial mix that turns up in most downtowns: The Park District built a giant aquatic center, to be followed next winter by a huge indoor recreation complex.

"Wheeling has a lot of different sections, old and new, a lot of minorities and a lot of divisiness," said Carol Hively, promotions director for the Park District. "But we had no core, no heart, no historic or geographic center, and there was nothing to pull all our different communities together."

Park District officials think their projects will create that much-desired central focus for the Dundee-Wolf Road area.

"There's been a lot of talk for a long time that something needed to be done," Hively said. Yet the Park District had anything but smooth sailing in its quest to bring water slides and pools to Wheeling.

A lot of residents fought furiously against the proposed water park, which was portrayed as a gigantic waste of taxpayers' money, according to Hively. But apparently, officials at the district saw that movie espousing the belief "if you build it, they will come." So far, they've been right.

Hively described the lavishly landscaped swimming pool complex as an immediate success, despite weather that hasn't been very cooperative since the facility's opening June 12. She added the aquatic center is already self-supporting and is luring in school and camp groups from all over.

Next on the agenda for "downtown Wheeling": a fountain plaza, a commuter train station and a new bicycle trail to further cement the area in residents minds as the heart of town.

The quality of mercy

Up against the wall, video pilferers. Continental Cablevision, which has about 50,000 subscribers in Rolling Meadows, Palatine, Hoffman Estates, Elk Grove Village and Buffalo Grove, says it is not amused by the number of illegal subscribers plugging into its system for free.

Although Continental had no figures available on the local pilfering population, the cable industry estimates that 6 million homes receive bootleg cable services nationwide.

Continental is warning its non-paying viewers out there that it is getting ready to do a serious audit and crack down on illegal subscribers.

But first, 31 days of amnesty. You have to 'fess up willingly to unauthorized hookups, free premium channels or illegal additional outlets, then the folks at Continental will politely give you the option to start paying or lose the service and "everything will be OK," said producer Armen Klujian. In other words, you won't be prosecuted, unless your piracy has somehow damaged the cable system.

However, if you blow off the July Amnesty, the video police will begin auditing the system and disconnect any freebies they uncover.

They will also make a black mark next to your name, and if you reconnect and get caught again, you'll be reported to the proper law enforcement authorities.

Frozen arts and crafts

What a difference a few weeks make. While the Schaumburg Prairie Arts Festival once again got the cold shoulder from Mother Nature over Memorial Day weekend, the Barrington Area Arts Council enjoyed a fabulous day Sunday for its art fair. Maybe the Schaumburg gang should take the hint after years of freezing and dodging thunderstorms, and have mercy on its artisans by rescheduling for later in the year.

Gamble for charity

The Illinois Women in Law Enforcement will have a Las Vegas-style Casino Night at The Seville, 700 Barrington Rd., Streamwood, at 6 p.m. Wednesday. Admission at the door is $5, which includes two free drinks.

The event will benefit the Community Crisis Center of Elgin, a shelter for abused women and children.